50 free Jehovah's Witnesses trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Jehovah's Witnesses are one of the most recognisable religious movements in the world, and this quiz covers the whole story: the Pittsburgh Bible study group Charles Taze Russell started in 1870, the convention in Columbus, Ohio, where the name was adopted in 1931, the magazines that became the most widely distributed on Earth, and the beliefs and practices that set the denomination apart. Easy questions ask what the meeting places are called and which two magazines members hand out; harder ones dig into the San Diego mansion built for resurrected patriarchs, the Supreme Court flag-salute case of 1943, the purple triangle of the Nazi camps and the year the Brooklyn headquarters were sold. It is written for anyone curious about religion, comparative-religion students and quiz nights that want something beyond the usual Bible round. The questions are factual and neutral: they describe what the movement teaches and how it is organised without arguing for or against it. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the denomination, its leaders, its publications and the legal cases involving it, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who founded the Bible Student movement from which Jehovah's Witnesses stem?
Charles Taze Russell
Russell started a Bible study group in Pittsburgh in 1870 and by 1912 was the most distributed Christian author in the United States.
Q 02In which US city did Russell and others form their Bible study group in 1870?
Pittsburgh
Russell had grown up working in his father's haberdashery there, and he later sold his clothing stores for about $300,000 to fund the ministry.
Q 03In what year was the name "Jehovah's witnesses" adopted?
1931
Joseph Rutherford introduced it at a convention in Columbus, Ohio, to set his group apart from other Bible Student groups.
Q 04The name Jehovah's Witnesses is based on a verse from which book of the Bible?
Isaiah
Isaiah 43:10 reads "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord" in the King James Version, and the resolution was adopted on July 26, 1931.
Q 05In which city was the 1931 convention held where the new name was announced?
Columbus, Ohio
The name was chosen partly to signal fresh evangelizing methods after years of defections following Russell's death.
Q 06What are the two magazines Jehovah's Witnesses are best known for distributing?
The Watchtower and Awake!
In 2010 they were the two most widely distributed magazines in the world, and both are now handed out free of charge.
Q 07What did Awake! magazine originally launch as in 1919?
The Golden Age
It was renamed Consolation in 1937 and became Awake! in 1946, taking the title from Romans 13:11.
Q 08What is the meeting place of a Jehovah's Witness congregation called?
Kingdom Hall
The term was first suggested by Rutherford in 1935 for a building in Hawaii, and the halls deliberately contain no religious symbols.
Q 09Rutherford coined the name for the group's meeting halls in 1935 for a building in which US territory?
Hawaii
Some later halls went up in days through volunteer "quick-build" projects once the foundations were laid.
Q 10Which Bible version do Jehovah's Witnesses prefer to use?
New World Translation
The New Testament portion appeared in 1950 at a Yankee Stadium convention and the complete Bible followed in 1961.
Q 11Where was the denomination's own translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures released in 1950?
Yankee Stadium, New York
The translation committee's members were never publicly named, in keeping with the policy of not crediting individual writers.
Q 12Which medical procedure do Jehovah's Witnesses refuse on religious grounds?
Blood transfusions
The doctrine dates from 1945, and since 1988 Hospital Liaison Committees have helped members find surgeons who operate without blood.
Q 13In what year was the blood transfusion doctrine introduced?
1945
Blood fractions such as albumin and clotting factors are treated as a matter of personal conscience rather than an outright ban.
Q 21What do Jehovah's Witnesses call their most important annual event?
The Memorial
It is held after sunset on Nisan 14; bread and wine are passed around but only those who consider themselves anointed partake.
Q 22The annual observance of Christ's death is held on the 14th day of which Jewish month?
Nisan
That places it at Passover; more than 20 million people attended the observance in 2025, far more than the number of active members.
Q 23What term do Jehovah's Witnesses use for members actively involved in preaching?
Publishers
About 9 million publishers in some 119,500 congregations were reported in 2025.
Q 14Which of these celebrations do Jehovah's Witnesses observe?
Wedding anniversaries
Birthdays and religious holidays are avoided as having pagan or nationalistic origins, but anniversaries are permitted.
Q 15What do Jehovah's Witnesses call the group of men that establishes all of the denomination's doctrines?
The Governing Body
It took over doctrinal authority from the Watch Tower Society president in a 1976 reorganisation.
Q 16How many people do Jehovah's Witnesses believe will go to heaven to rule with Jesus?
144,000
They interpret Revelation 14 literally on this point; everyone else who is saved lives forever on a cleansed earth.
Q 17What do Jehovah's Witnesses call the majority of the faithful who hope to live on a paradise earth?
The other sheep
The "little flock" is the 144,000 bound for heaven; from 1935 new converts were counted in the earthly class Rutherford called the great multitude.
Q 18In which year do Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus began ruling invisibly in heaven as king?
1914
Russell and Nelson Barbour had earlier calculated 1914 as the end of a 2,520-year period they called the Gentile Times.
Q 19Rather than a cross, Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus died on what?
A single upright post
They regard the cross as a pagan symbol and avoid the word "crucifixion" altogether.
Q 20Which archangel do Jehovah's Witnesses identify with Jesus?
Michael
They hold that Jesus was God's first creation and the only archangel, and reject the doctrine of the Trinity.
Q 24Roughly how many members did Jehovah's Witnesses report worldwide in 2025?
About 9.2 million
The count includes only people who file reports of their preaching, so surveys that ask people to self-identify find roughly twice as many.
Q 25How many hours per month did a regular pioneer commit to preaching in 2025?
50
Auxiliary pioneers do 30 hours, and special pioneers preach 100 hours a month with a stipend, often in remote areas.
Q 26What are Jehovah's Witnesses' branch offices and headquarters staff residences called?
Bethel
Volunteers called Bethelites receive room, board and a small stipend, and are expected to read the entire Bible in their first year.
Q 27Where did the Watch Tower Society move its headquarters in 1909?
Brooklyn, New York
It stayed there until 2016, when the property was sold to Kushner Companies for $340 million ahead of the move to Warwick.
Q 28To which New York town did Jehovah's Witnesses move their world headquarters in 2017?
Warwick, New York
The Brooklyn buildings went to Kushner Companies for $340 million in 2016, ahead of the move upstate in 2017.
Q 29Which company bought the Brooklyn headquarters property in 2016?
Kushner Companies
The $340 million sale came the same year the denomination ranked eighteenth for donations among Canadian registered charities.
Q 30Who succeeded Russell as president of the Watch Tower Society in 1917?
Joseph Franklin Rutherford
A former Missouri court reporter and substitute judge, he was known as Judge Rutherford and introduced door-to-door preaching.